No Knead Whole Wheat Rosemary Bread (made in the Instant Pot)

No-knead rosemary bread made in the Instant Pot! I’ve been hinting at this recipe for a while, and I finally got it up. I know I’ve been a broken record about the whole Instant Pot thing, and here’s another reason for you to grab one. I kinda hate that I keep trying to convince you to buy another appliance, but it’s just so versatile. I use mine at least a few times a week and now that I’ve figured out how to make bread in it, I know that number will only increase.

However, in the spirit of being a kinda-sorta-minimalist, I will continue to provide stove-top alternatives for those who don’t want yet another thing in their kitchen. You are essentially just using the Instant Pot to proof the bread, a continuous warm spot that allows the bread to proof in a fraction of the time. The Instant Pot just saves you time, but it’s not a necessary thing.

Have you had no-knead bread before? This is based on the famous NYT bread recipe, using whole-wheat flour, fresh rosemary and flaky sea salt. If you’ve ever eaten at Macaroni grill and know their rosemary bread, that was my inspiration. BL and I used to eat there all the time in graduate school and would easily down a loaf of bread while we waited for our pasta meals. Yes, I’ve been in love with carbs pretty much my entire life.

Here’s how you make it:

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Make the dough; it should look shaggy like this.

Combine all of the ingredients for the dough together in an oven-safe bowl (I use a clear glass stacking bowl.) The dough should look fairly shaggy, like the photo above. I also use instant yeast for this recipe over regular yeast. Since you are only proofing for a few hours, you’ll want to make sure the yeast is fast acting. You should be able to find the yeast next to regular yeast in the grocery store.

For added flavor, sprinkle in a generous handful of chopped fresh rosemary. I haven’t tried dried rosemary in this bread yet, but opt for the fresh kind instead. I know it’s another ingredient you have to purchase, but the difference in taste between fresh and dried rosemary is night and day to me.

Place dough in a glass bowl on a trivet in the Instant Pot. Cover with plastic wrap.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place on a trivet in the Instant Pot. You are essentially creating a barrier between the heat plate and the bowl, so use whatever you have on hand. I turned a large mason jar top upside down and placed the bowl on top. A small metal trivet would also work, or a rack designed for the Instant Pot.

Let proof for 3 1/2 hours on the Yogurt Setting

Hit the yogurt button and let proof for 3 1/2-4 hours. Non Instant-Pot friends, this is where you will proof the dough on a warm spot on a counter until doubled in size, roughly 12-18 hours. When I make this without the Instant Pot, I make the dough at night and place on my warm radiator to proof while I’m sleeping. (Um sleeping= short naps all night long because my sweet three month old doesn’t understand the concept of sleep longer than 2-3 hours.)

Shape the dough and place back in the Instant Pot to proof while the oven preheats.

Once the dough is proofed, sprinkle flour all over your counter and gently knead/shape the dough into whatever shape you’d like. I then place this back in the bowl in the Instant Pot to proof a little bit more while the oven preheats.

Place the dough in the preheated dutch oven and sprinkle with olive oil, more fresh rosemary and textured sea salt.

To preheat the oven, place whatever container you are going to cook your bread in while the oven is cool. You want the bread baker to be piping hot when you put the dough in, for ultimate crust. I use either my dutch oven or this la cloche bread baker. My brother-in-law bought me that baker a few years ago for Christmas, and it makes the best homemade bread.

Right before you place the dough in the oven, sprinkle with olive oil, more fresh rosemary and textured sea salt (I love Maldon here.)

Bake for 30 minutes covered, 15 minutes uncovered

Bake for 30 minutes covered, then 15 minutes uncovered. See that gorgeous golden crust? It’s so yummy on it’s own, dipped into soups or made into grilled cheeses.

However you like your bread, you’ve gotta try it like this. When I’m feeling particularly ambitions, I make a batch early on Saturday morning for a yummy weekend lunch. Since I usually make a batch of soup on the weekends this time of year anyways, it seems only natural to now pair fresh crusty bread with it.

Instructions

In a glass bowl large enough to fit in the Instant Pot, mix together the flour, salt, yeast and 2 tablespoons of the fresh rosemary. Add in the water and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until just incorporated, taking care not to over mix. The mixture will be very sticky and shaggy, like the photo above.

Place a trivet on the bottom of the Instant Pot, I used the top of a large mason jar turned upside down. Cover the glass bowl with plastic and place on the trivet in the pot. Cover, and turn on the yogurt setting and turn the vent to “venting”. Set for 4 hours to proof.

When the dough is done proofing, it should be double in size. If not, proof another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F and place a dutch oven with cover in the cool oven to warm up.

Turn the dough out on a floured counter and gently shape into a ball. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and the remaining rosemary.

Let stand on the counter or place back in the bowl and the Instant Pot to proof again while the oven is preheating.

Carefully remove the hot dutch oven from the oven and uncover. Gently place the dough ball into the dutch oven (I added a piece of parchment paper to prevent sticking) and cover. Place back in the oven and cook for 30 minutes covered. Remove lid and bake an additional 15 minutes until golden brown.

Remove bread from oven and let cool completely before slicing and serving. Cover any leftovers, which should last for 1-2 days.

Notes

No Instant Pot? No problem. Make the dough as directed, then let proof in a warm spot for 12-18 hours until doubled in size. Then, bake as directed.

Did you make this recipe?

About Alex

Alex Caspero is a Registered Dietitian, Plant-Based Chef and Yoga Instructor. She aims to cut through the nutrition noise by providing real-life, nourishing tips for body and mind. Her blog, Delish Knowledge, focuses on making whole-food eating deliciously simple. She lives in St. Louis, MO with her husband, running buddy and taste-tester BL.

If you are interested in personal nutrition coaching, please visit her services page.

Reader Interactions

Comments

So gorgeous – especially with that soup! I was ready to believe you cooked the whole thing in the Instant Pot … on the saute setting or something. Glad traditional baking is still best for bread. 🙂 I do love my IP, though, and wonder if you’ve tried the yogurt setting for actually making yogurt? It’s one of my goals for 2018.

Hi Jane- yes! Still baking it in the oven, though the yogurt setting means that this bread is proofed and ready to go in just 3-4 hours, a fraction of what it normally takes for no-knead bread. I haven’t used it yet, but plan on doing so soon. As always, I’ll make sure to share it here.

I absolutely love my IP yogurt. I use 1 gallon of 2% milk and push the yogurt button where it says “BOIL” (It doesn’t actually bring it to a boil though) when it beeps, take the IP liner iout and put it in an ice bath. Stirring, bring the temp down to 100-110 degrees F. At that point add in 4 tbls of 2% Fage Greek yogurt. Stir it in well. Then put the liner back in the IP and set the yogurt button and adjust time to 8 hr. When it’s done, strain the whey out. I just a colander lined with coffee filters. Strain till your desired consistency in the fridge.

Getting ready to try this recipe for the bread, only I’m going to try all WW flour. Wish me luck.

Made this today along with tomato soup using my IP. Good flavor – husband gives it good review!! Mine was a little dense, and the crust (top and bottom) was pretty crisp (hard to cut through). Suggestions for next time?

So glad you liked it! Few thoughts: if it was dense, I’d recommend proofing it a little longer. Perhaps going the full 4 hours. How long did you proof it for? If you plan on making this often, you might consider using bread flour, which will produce a taller and less dense bread than all-purpose flour. When you measure flour using cups, make sure not to pack flour too dense in a measuring cup, otherwise you will end up with much more flour than you need, and, therefore, the bread will come out denser. You can either weigh the flour (I don’t do this, but my baker mom refuses to measure flour and only weighs it.) or aerate the flour before measuring it. Was the bread overcooked? My crust was crunchy as well, but in a good way. Did you use a dutch oven to cook it in? Just in case, make sure to preheat the oven with the Dutch oven inside. Once the oven is preheated, place the dough inside of the Dutch oven and covered with its lid. Preheating the Dutch oven before adding the dough replicates the extreme radiant heat used in a professional bread oven.

Also- if you make the recipe again and do any of these changes, let me know so I can add the issues to the notes. I’ll also plan on redoing this recipe ASAP to see if I get any of the density/crust issues to troubleshoot on my own.

When I make “no knead” bread, the first proofing is in the oven with the oven light on. There is just enough heat to proof with great results. On top of that, I noticed the so tough crust but it was better if I bake at 430 then 450. If in doubt, lower the temp every time until you have the crust you like the most. I haven’t tried this recipe yet but I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for recipe!! **I proofed countertop and I do not own a Dutch oven** I used whole wheat flour and I realized after the fact my pressure cooker does not have a yogurt setting – so I left on my counter to proof. I live in Honolulu so I was hoping the general humidity would suffice.. I let proof for 18 hours – the dough seemed small and a bit gooey.. But I proceeded anyway! I took out the ceramic pot in my crockpot and cooked the bread in that in the oven.

Overall – I ended up with a small loaf but I’m super pleased!! It’s hearty and cooked through! The fresh rosemary really was a game changer. Thanks!!!

I did finally make this in the bread machine a couple of nights ago. It was really good but I did need to add more flour. I would say I added about 1/4 cup of flour and probably could have added a bit more as the dough wasn’t quite right for the bread machine. My husband thought it was a little salty, but I think he got a bite of the crust. When the bread was baking, I spritzed the top with olive oil and sprinkled some rosemary on top as well as some fleur de sel salt. I saved a couple of slices and made some of the best croutons ever with those bread slices. Thanks for a great recipe!

I followed this recipe to a T and it is THE best bread I’ve ever made! It actually looked exactly like the pictures: same shape, same color, same texture and toppings on top. Chewy, soft, crusty, moist. I claimed there would be no leftovers for anyone else to try, but my boyfriend and I were full after two slices each, we have leftovers. They will be gone by tongiht’s dinner. Thank you so much!

OK, so I made this recipe exactly and proofed for the 3 1/2 hours in the Instapot – however, the dough was so runny and wet that it did not hold any shape. I had a time just getting it off of the floured surface to put it in my dutch oven to cook. Are you sure 1 1/2 c of water? I am baking this now -will let you know if it is eatable.

Hm, Nancy- I’m not sure what happened. I make this recipe often and the ratio should be 3 cups flour to 1 1/2 cups water. The original no-knead bread calls for 1 5/8 cups water, but I use 1 1/2 cups and it does work. I wonder if your flour measurement was off a bit? Let me know how it turns out- it should be a shaggy dough (like the photo) but not wet.

I made this last night (my first ever attempt at bread) and it turned out perfectly. I would love suggestions on how to adapt to make various types of bread. I might try this today with cinnamon instead of rosemary but I’m not sure if sugar will mess with the yeast.

Question: I’d like to bake this so it’s hot out of the oven in the morning, but I don’t want to get up at 4 am to make and proof it. Could I make and put it in the instant pot to proof overnight and then take it out and bake it (following the pre-heated dutch oven instructions) in the morning??

New to breadmaking AND instant pot use, but ready to jump in and see what happens 🙂

Can I proof this in advance and let it sit until I’m ready to bake/eat it? I’d like to proof it the night before and then bake it fresh in the morning so we will have bread hot out of the oven. I don’t want to have to get up at 4 am to start the proofing process. Thoughts?

Hi, I am excited to try this recipe. A few questions, if I continue to proof the bread in the instant pot while the oven is heating up…is the instant pot still on the yogurt setting? Can I substitute the whole wheat flour for all white? Also I have a small 3-3/4 qt le creuset dutch oven, will this be big enough to bake the bread in? I also have an open cast iron skillet w/o a lid.

Hi Sophia, you remove the bread from the instant pot while the oven is heating up. You can try all wheat flour, but I find that it’s a pretty dense bread, so it will have a different taste. You need the lid to trap the steam- you can try it in the smaller dutch oven just know that the bread will be shaped differently. Thanks!

Question – I don’t have a dutch oven. Not sure if I want to buy one just for making bread….so wondering if I can instead use my oven safe frying pan and cover the top with tinfoil instead? Would that work?

Honestly, I’m not sure. The enclosed baker is what creates the crust on the bread and I haven’t tried it in anything else. I don’t want you to have to buy a dutch oven- though, once you have one you will likely use it all the time. Mine sits on my stove from Sept-April because I use it every few days for a soup/stew.

Do you have to use a glass bowl to proof the dough or can you just use the insert that comes with the instant pot? I seem to have given all my glass bowls away and only have ceramic microwave safe bowls now. 🙁

it look like you took out the silver pot that comes with the insta, and placed it on a rack directly over the heating element? The photo appears that way, however, had I missed the sticker on the inside of the pot in the photo, I would have just kept the glass bowl in the silver instapot bowl that came with the unit. Is this true?